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Show 1886.] MR. R. COLLETT ON HYBRID GROUSE. 239 cry, « which resembled that of the Capercailzie." (Levin, (Efv. Kgl. Vet.-Akad. Forh. Stockholm, 1847, p. 201.) Most of the specimens which have come into m y hands in a fresh state had no gun-shot wounds, and probably had been snared ; but whether these were taken in snares together with Rype in districts frequented by the latter, namely in the regio alpina (the upper limits of the birch-region on the mountains), or with Tetrao urogallus and T. tetrix in the forest-regions, cannot be stated with any certainty. If remains of their food are examined it will probably be found that they more usually share the quarters of the Willow-Grouse than those of the other species. One of the specimens sent to the University Museum (from Sande Sogn, Nov. 9, 1881) was shot not far from the Christiania Fjord, in a district where the Lagopus albus certainly breeds, but in very few numbers, and this is hardly an annual occurrence, the locality being comparatively low. The sender of this bird, who regularly received game from tbat place, deemed it certain that it had been captured along with Blackgame, as it was forwarded to him in a bunch of these birds, and he never received Willow-Grouse from there. Food. In some of the individuals opened by me the food was still partially or wholly entire, and consisted of the following :- 1. Male, Dec. 7, 1870 : a number of fragments of a Salix (15 millim. in length), fragments and numerous berries of Myrtillus nigra, tops of Calluna vulgaris (about 30 millim. in length), and a few leaves of Arctostaphylos alpina. 2. Male, Dec. 6, 1872 : tops and seeds of Carex stellulata, a few berries of Oxycoccus palustris and Juniperus communis, some of the latter in an unripe state. 3. Male, Feb. 28, 1873: leaves of Vaccinium vitis idcea, fragments and buds of a Salix and of Myrtillus nigra. 4. Female, Jan. 1875 : a number of ripe and unripe berries of Juniperus, also a number of the peculiar bunchy leaves of that bush, in which Cecidomyia juniperina had formed their capsules; a large number of stalks of the Myrtillus nigra (about 12 millim. in length), some leaves of Vaccinium vitis idcea, some old female and many young male catkins of Betula glutinosa (the mountain form, alpigena), and, lastly, the twigs of a haired Salix (S. glaucal). 5. Female, Oct. 7, 1876 : some berries of Empetrum nigrum, also stalks of Myrtillus nigra. 6. Male, Dec. 27, 1879: leaves and berries of Oxycoccus palustris. 7. Young male, autumn, 1880 : berries of Oxycoccus palustris, also the top of a Carex. From these examples it will be seen that this hybrid both in winter and summer derives nourishment from about the same sources as the Willow-Grouse, namely stalks of willows and bilberries, |
